LETTER FROM A LADY AT THE SEAT OF WAR.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 1883, 9 May 1878, Page 4

LETTER FROM A LADY AT THE SEAT OF WAR.

TOR CAMPAIGN In ROUMBLU. Tlio following extracts aro from a letter lately received in Auckland by a gontlenan whose aistor is ono of an heroic bond of flvo Indies, now noting ns Sisters of Mercy at tho seat ot war :—: — " Vatdino, Bulgaria, " January Oth, 1878. My dear Brother — * * * Sinco I last wrote to you wo wore obliged to leave lioro quito ■uddi'iily to go to Sophia, which is next Adrianople, as thoro has boon a battlo fought thero, and it was hoped that tho city would fall in two days. Wo trarolled night and day over the, mountains, living on black broad and horso-llesh, and arrived six hours before Sophia was taken. - Of coimn, we procooded at once to tho field of battlo, and soon found ourselves in tho very midst of the awful fighting. Wo novertheleas pursued our duties, stanching wounds, and seoing sufferers' carriod out of danger. YVe all got slightly wounded, but God was for us, so who could be against us, and none of our f>arty wore eithor killed or severely mrt. We dressed tho wounds of hundreds of poor soldiors who othorwiso must havo perished, for when wo were not near tho soldiers deliberately walked ovor the wounded as if they wero just so much earth. Not even in tho horrible rush, however, did any of the soldiery knock us ovor, and a number of the ofllcora stopped to kiss my hands, in spito of their boing covered with blood. I ■will now pa."s ovor tho horrors which are indescribable, and tell you what was tho end. When all tho fighting w.ia ovor, and we wero still on tho Hold trying to help some out of the 30,000 wounded, twelvo officers, headed by General Paakanski enmo in person to thank us for having helped them. It was such a coromony, they each touched our foroheads, crossed themselves ayrain, all the timo kneeling, and then they and all tho soldiers who were loft chanted a prayer in Greek. Was it not good of thorn ? How many many times I wished you could bo there to have seen your little sister on that day. The officers tried to porauado us to rest, but how could wo do so with auch n sight boforo us ? We went on woiking all night by moonlight; tho icene was weird. Tho dead and dying covered half a milo or more, and wo wero all separated, working in different parts of tho Sold. Each Sister managed to get two soldiers to help her. I had two such good fellows, and we dressed tho wounds of 800 frightfully wounded men during tho night, 200 during the six hours of tho light, which was extromely difficult to do amidst it all, and 400 next morning, in all 1400. Tho last 300 I hardly remember doing. I felt so ill and exhaustod. Tho other four SistexM looked awful, almost like death, they wore so fatigued. In tho ovoning, two of us wore in high fevor, and partly unconscious, which wua hardly to bo wondnrod at, aa we had not rested for four wholu days, and two of these in tho field "